Survey shows growing support of immigrants in Houston area

When Carlos Duarte moved to Houston two and a half years ago from Phoenix, he was startled to see four police officers - an Anglo, an Asian, an African-American and a Latino - walk into a restaurant to share a meal.

"It was like the perfect balance," said Duarte, a 42-year-old father of four and regional director at Mi Familia Vota, a national nonprofit group focused on Latinos. "I've been in many parts of the country, and I've never, ever seen that before."

Because of such Houston moments, Duarte was not surprised by the findings about immigration attitudes in a new study by the Rice University Kinder Institute for Urban Research. The survey found that a clear majority of Harris County residents hold positive attitudes about legal and illegal immigration.

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Other findings from the report

* Traffic: 29 percent (up from 21 percent in 2013) now say that traffic - more than the economy or crime - is the biggest problem facing the Houston area.

* Transportation: Harris County residents are evenly divided about improving public transit or expanding highways and in preference for living in single-family residential areas or in mixed-use urban environments.

* Capital punishment: Houstonians have gradually dropped their support for the death penalty, with 69 percent supporting alternatives - such as life in prison without parole - for people convicted of first-degree murder.

* Drug penalties: Support for lesser penalties for drug offenses has increased with 72 percent of residents agreeing those caught with small amounts of drugs should be fined rather than sent to jail.

In the survey, released Thursday, three-fifths of respondents said immigrants contribute more to the American economy than they take. That was 10 percentage points more than in 2012, the last time researchers asked the same question, and the highest since the survey began in 1982.

When polled specifically about illegal immigration, 75 percent of respondents said the large number of people in the area without legal permission is not a "very serious" problem, up 12 percentage points from 2012 when the question was last posed.

That upswing is partly a reflection of Houston's status as the most diverse metropolitan area in the nation, cementing its transformation from a biracial Southern port city into a place where only one-quarter of its residents are Anglo, said Stephen Klineberg, a Rice sociology professor and codirector of the institute directing the study.

"We're all different people today," he said. "A lot of the shock and surprise has dissipated when it comes to immigration. People are realizing how much immigrants have contributed and that it's not an invasion."

The survey included responses from 1,048 Harris County respondents contacted by cellular or land-line phones. The results were weighted to represent the demographic makeup of the county. The margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Demographic shifts

Today, non-Hispanic whites represent a majority of the population only among Harris County residents over the age of 65. More than half of all residents under the age of 20 are Latinos, and another fifth are African-American, according to 2012 census data.

Such demographic shifts mean people are more likely to know someone who is not here legally, said Duarte, who's polled in conservative Houston congressional districts and found similar support for immigration.

"Once you know someone you realize they're not criminals but productive members of society, students, construction workers, janitors," he said.

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Another crucial factor is Houston's booming economy, Klineberg said. The number of residents who told researchers their personal financial situation has improved in the past few years increased for the first time since 2011, to 34 percent, reaching pre-financial crisis levels. Experts say people perceive less competition for scarce jobs and resources when the economy improves.

In the survey, three-quarters of respondents said they favor granting immigrants in this country illegally a path to citizenship if they speak English and have no criminal record. That was down 8 percentage points from 2013, but still the second-highest level in the poll's history, Klineberg said.

Forty-five percent of Harris County residents gave high ratings - 6 or higher on a scale with 10 representing the most positive - about their attitudes toward immigrants here illegally.

Publicity around the plight of so-called dreamers, immigrants who came here as children and who President Barack Obama has allowed to stay temporarily if they meet certain requirements, also has helped change perceptions, said University of Houston Downtown President Bill Flores.

One such student at his campus, Wendy Ramirez, 22, came here from Mexico when she was 9 after her father was rendered quadriplegic in a hit-and-run accident. That inspired Ramirez to become a doctor, but the biology student worries medical schools won't accept her because of her status.

Political rhetoric hurts

The survey's findings, representing the most in positive sentiments toward immigration in two decades, seem at odds with recent political rhetoric on the issue. Nationally, immigration reform has stalled in Congress and activists have derided Obama as the "Deporter-In-Chief" for having removed more than 2 million immigrants during five years.

In Texas, Republican state Sen. Dan Patrick's campaign for lieutenant governor has featured harsh language on immigration. Patrick has advocated closing the border and repealing in-state tuition and paths to citizenship for young immigrants. He has spoken of an "illegal invasion from Mexico" and has accused immigrants of bringing "third-world diseases."

These factors may account for one of the study's most surprising findings, Klineberg said. Despite increased prosperity, lower unemployment and fewer worries about crime, Harris County residents' assessment of inter-ethnic relations declined sharply.

Participants' evaluation of relations among ethnic groups in the Houston area had increased every year since 1992, peaking in 2013 at 50 percent positive.

This year, the proportion saying such relations were good dropped overall and within each racial group. The biggest decline was among Latinos, who reported a fall from 43 percent in 2013 to 35 percent this year. This seems inconsistent with the growing acceptance of immigrants and may represent a statistical fluke, but it could also sound a warning to city, county and state leaders.

"Latinos feel under attack with the increased deportations, all the rhetoric in the media," said Maria Jimenez, a longtime Houston immigrant activist now with Houston United. "There is tremendous pressure."

Said Reginald Lillie, president of NAACP Houston: "It speaks to an overall frustration with what's coming from our politicians, the rhetoric, the divisiveness ... that trickles down."

That may explain why 62 percent of respondents this year agreed government should take action to reduce income differences, up from 45 percent in 2010. Seventy-one percent of respondents favored increasing the minimum wage, even if doing so might lead to fewer jobs.

Though Houston is so diverse, its sprawling form and cheap housing mean people can choose to live in more homogenous communities. In more dense cities such as New York, "people are stuck living where they can afford it," Klineberg said.

"In the midst of all this transformation in Houston, diversity can either be our greatest asset or what could tear us apart," he said.